Bicknell: Studies in Sisvrixchium 



225 



barrens, Craven County, North Carolina, July 3d (G. McCarthy) 

 doubtless also belongs here, but shows a mature plant of very dif- 

 ferent aspect. The stems are tall, and about twice spirally 

 twisted, the tallest 47 



cm, high 



and bearing at the node two 



-1 



.5 mm. high ; the immature seeds are rugulose-pitted 



slender peduncles and a longer divergent branch ternu'nating in a 

 cluster of three peduncles ; the spathes are slenderer and longer 

 than in the type, with narrow stiffly attenuate slightly unequal 

 bracts. The capsules arc brown and thick-walled, ovoid subglo- 



bose, and 



and about 1.25 mm. in diameter. The stem and leaves, slightly 



broader than in the type, have dried very dark, but they show the 

 same character of densely ciliolate-serrulate margins and also indi- 

 cations of granulose roughening on the sides ; the fibrous tuft at 

 the base of the plant is of much the same character as in the t)'pe 

 but of a duller, more brownish color. 



Sisyrinchium fuscatum 



Growing in thin tufts, i 5-50 cm. high, fibrose about the base, 

 and arising from rather stout rootstocks and clustered widely 

 spreading fibrous roots. PLant dull green and glaucescent, crys- 

 talline puncticulate, discoloring in drying, sometimes becoming al- 

 most black : leaves long and slender, but shorter than the stems, 

 firm and erect, becoming flexuous, .5-2.5 mm. wide, acute or slen- 

 derly subterete at the apex, strongly close-striate, the edges smooth 

 or denticulate-roughened : stems long and slender, erect, .75-2 mm. 

 wide, at least the wings distinctly striate, the edges minutely den- 

 ticulate, becoming smooth ; bractcal leaf short, and erect, attenuate 

 above, the broader basal portion strongly close-striate, surpassed 

 by the two closely approximate and subcqual, erect, slender 



: spathes 



long 



peduncles, which are subterete and only 2-6 cm 

 erect, narrow, but abruptly wider than the constricted peduncle, 

 15-18 mm. long, the bracts equal or nearly so, stiffly herbaceous 

 and firmly close-striate, closely approximate, cuspidate-acuminate, 

 the outer one clasping for 2-4 mm. at base ; interior scales much 

 shorter than the bracts : flowers 5-8, blue, on erect, more or less 

 exserted pedicels, 18-25 mm. long; perianth about 10 mm. long, 

 the segments narrow, rather closely and strongly nerved : capsules 

 2.5-4 mm. high, broadly subglobose, drying dark. 



Western Florida to Mississippi. 



Flowering from March to May. 



Florida: Apalachicola, Chapman. 



